How to buy a web domain & hosting in Ireland

ASK YOUR WEB DESIGNER FIRST.

Sorry for shouting, but I can’t count the amount of project hours that I’ve lost dealing with hosters who have bad customer service, poor systems and the inadequate services for the job at hand. It’s particularly frustrating because I know well which Irish hosting services are good, and a simple question before making the purchase can save so much time.

The temptation when you’re planning a website is to race out and buy the domain name straight away, in case someone else gets it. However, domain squatting is not the problem that it used to be, largely because you have to have proof that you own a business name when you’re buying an associated .ie domain. Even if you’re very keen to nab a domain name, speak to a designer or developer first, even informally – booking a domain with the wrong company can cost you time and money. I have personally paid double domain charges, and advised clients to do the same, in order to move a domain away from a poor hoster – the time it takes in dealing with shoddy customer service is simply not worth it.

It’s best to buy your domain and hosting from the same company – ask your designer for their recommendation, and for the following info:

What kind of hosting plan will I need? How much webspace and bandwidth?

Should I buy a Linux or Windows hosting plan? (Boring and techy but very important, as this choice can affect how your site performs in search engines)

My personal recommendation for a .ie domain name and hosting is Blacknight, and many other Irish designers feel the same way. I use them for most of my .ie projects and always recommend them to clients.

This site is hosted with Tigertech, a US based hosting company, who I’ve been with for over ten years and who have been consistently reliable and affordable throughout all that time. I absolutely recommend them for international or US-based .com sites

3 Comments

There is just one problem with Blacknight though. The way the servers are set up is that if you use their script to install your WordPress for you – it is really tricky to access it by FTP later on (hidden folders and stuff).

Other options are Register365 – with quite some nice features – each domain can have its own full account – so useful for resellers. Then again they use the les popular ZEUS web server,… that I just do not like – simply WordPress is slightly unproductive on it.

Digiweb has a very similar offering to the two above, but less nice support staff than the two above.

And for us – I just use GoDaddy. Either you like them or you hate them. The third option is you learn ignore their marketing and cross selling ‘attacks’.

I have used Register365 many times on professional projects in the past and have found that their customer service is not up to scratch. I wasn’t aware that there were issues with using Blacknight’s scripts to install WordPress – I would always recommend doing your own installation (or getting your web designer to do it, obviously!) so that you have full control over where things end up on the server.